Post navigation

It all started when Max was wandering through the forest. He was trying to find his Uncle Tom’s hut when he spotted it out of the corner of his eye. Max ran as fast as possible. He went to warn Tom of his mum’s suspicion that a war was about to occur. When he arrived, he realised he was too late. The hut was in flames, voices squealed in pain and two blood-shot eyes appeared from the middle of the fire. Max was woken from his dream with a start by the sound of gunshots, bumping his head on the ceiling.

He rushed downstairs to see his dad had been shot in the thigh. His mum knelt next to him. “Max”, she said, “go to the forest and stay at Uncle Tom’s hut, he’ll help you.” Banging sounds came from the front door. “Go through the back”, his mum said.

Max tip-toed through the back sneakily and broke into a sprint through the forest. As Max wandered around the forest he noticed dead troops laying scattered in bushes.

Max felt like a zombie had fed him with poison. Before that, it was worse than poison. He was standing in shock staring at a pile of ashes surrounding Uncle Tom. Anger rushed through his veins as glittering tears trickled down his cheeks. Max stormed through the forest, through an extremely dark cave. He kept walking until he tripped over a wire.

A blinding light turned on from Max’s left, with a tall, glimmering shadow appearing. Once the light dimmed, Max could see the man easily. He wore brown, shaggy clothes and looked extremely pale, like he hadn’t eaten for a month.

“Hello”, he said. “You can call me Uncle Tom.”

“Hi, I’m Max’, Max replied.

“Make a wish”, Uncle Tom said. “You’ll need it.”

Max thought for a long time. He thought about the war and his family. “I wish”, Max managed, “that the war never happened.

“Are you sure?” Tom asked.

“Yes”, Max said bravely.

Uncle Tom snapped his fingers and Max dozed off.

When Max woke up, light broke out onto his face. He pulled off the blankets and rushed downstairs. He sprinted into the kitchen. His mum as preparing hotdogs while his dad talked with a familiar pale man. Uncle Tom turned to Max and winked with a mischievous grin.

The below is a story from one of the clever students at Bay Primary, Barbados, with whom Edworks’ Directors Greg Nicholson & Prue Sobers have been working for the past three months.

The Devil was no ordinary devil! She was a pirate devil! Her ship was a grand vessel and she sailed the Caribbean. She loved to look for pirate treasure; the gold kind.

The Devil was angry. It had been months since she had come upon a ship or old treasure map floating in a bottle. She kept looking for the treasure day and night. As she walked along a deserted beach she saw it! X marked the spot! It was the mark of another pirate captain who had not survived to collect his plunder.

Immediately, the Devil got out her shovel and began digging. She was so happy she had finally found some treasure. The pulled out the trunk from the sand and rubbed her hands together as she thought of all the gold and diamonds that were soon hers. She slowly opened the lid. It was empty! She started to get mad and angry, when she realized that it wasn’t empty at all. It had one thing in it; it was a magic necklace!

The Devil held up the necklace and slowly placed it around her neck. She was suddenly thrust into the future. She landed with a thud. The Devil opened her eyes and there in front of her was gold; mountains of it! The Devil was so happy that she had found gold. She could not, however, keep the treasure as she had to share it among the poor children. She was happy that the poor were happy and she got to see the smiles on their faces as they had money to buy food and clothes.

The below is a story from one of the clever students at Bay Primary, Barbados, with whom Edworks’ Directors Greg Nicholson & Prue Sobers have been working for the past three months.

I went to the pier to do some fishing. I knew that there were some tasty fish just waiting to be caught. I hopped into my small boat and made my way down one of the rivers snaking through Kakadu. After an hour I caught a barramundi which looked just fine for lunch. I went back to the sand to set up camp for dinner. As I was about to hop off the boat a terrifying crocodile attacked me. It was at least 8 metres long and had huge rows of teeth ready to snap me in half.

It lunged at the motor and almost bit it in two. I tried to move fast and find something, anything to poke it in the eye so that he would let go of the motor. As he submerged under the water, I got the motor going and sped off full throttle. I thought I was safe but just as quickly he rose out of the water once more.

I fell over almost tumbled out of the boat. I thought he would eat me this time! I could not think of anything else, but to grab a stick and poke it in the eye.

Finally, I saw a boat up river and yelled for help. They did not hear me. I was so frightened that I yelled even louder. This time someone turned around and saw me. They quickly sped to me and I scrambled onto their vessel. What a relief! I was safe once more.

The below is a story from one of the clever students at Bay Primary, Barbados, with whom Edworks’ Directors Greg Nicholson & Prue Sobers have been working for the past three months.

The Smiths wanted a new house, so while their children, Jack and Vanessa, were on vacation they decided sell up and move! They found just the house they wanted; except for the fact it was in the middle of nowhere. Matt and Meredith crossed their fingers as their children arrived and ran into their new home as fast as they could.

When the kids opened the door, they got the shock of their lives. They went from room to room, eyes wide open in disbelief. Each room was dark and spooky and filled with musty, old furniture. It was like a movie set of the haunted kind.

“Mum! Dad! We hate this house!” they screamed.

“Why?” their parents asked.

“Because it’s haunted!”

Time went by and still the kids thought they could see ghosts and other ghoulish creatures like zombies hiding in cupboards and behind doors. As they were getting ready for bed, Jack heard a knock on the door. It got louder and louder and wouldn’t stop! “Aaah!” Vanessa screamed. Everyone rushed to her. There they saw a magic bubble floating through the air. It was glowing like a star, and as it floated a faint trail of mist followed. Jack was about to burst the bubble when his dad shouted, “Stop! Don’t touch that bubble!” He gently blew it into the closet and they decided to leave it there till the next day.

As the sun rose, Jack and Vanessa woke to hear the closet shake. Jack jumped out of bed and without thinking, opened the closet and burst the bubble. An explosion of colour and noise erupted from the bubble. An evil spirit filled the room, its menacing cries could be heard throughout the house. Matt and Meredith grabbed the children and ran for the safety of the front yard. When they were almost through the front door, the evil spirit grabbed Jack’s ankle. Jack screamed. His father pulled him through the door with all his might. The light filled the room and theevil spirit let go as it shrieked in pain from the burning sunlight.

As they sat under an oak tree, Jack thought of a plan. He remembered that the spirit grew bigger every time it became angry. His plan was to say things that made him so angry that he would blow the roof off. Together they made a list of things that would make the evil spirit angrier and angrier.

Vanessa crept to the front door, took adeep breath and yelled, “We like you! You smell nice! What a lovely smile you have! Can you be a party clown? You’re not scary at all!” With that the roof blew off the house andthe Smith family watched as a spiral of amazing fireworks exploded into the air! This is better than Old Years Night laughed Vanessa.

The below is a story from one of the clever students at Bay Primary, Barbados, with whom Edworks’ Directors Greg Nicholson & Prue Sobers have been working for the past three months.

There was once a planet called Cranus in a galaxy far, far away. No humans existed on this planet, but animals ruled with the same intelligence and wisdom. A mighty lion was feared by all animals big and small. His name was Brian. Yes, Brian! Don’t let his name fool you as Brian would eat an animal each and every day.

All the animals who weren’t cats knew that they were only safe when Brian had eaten for the day. Brian, never, ever lost a battle; he always had his meal. Despite this, Brian was a very friendly fellow before and after his meal.One day, after visiting his friend, Meowth the cat, Brian went hunting and came across a giraffe. As the giraffe was so tall, Brian had to go for his foot rather than his neck like usual. “Chomp!”“Owh!” the giraffe shouted. It turned around to see a lion biting on its leg with powerful jaws. “Hey, let go of me!” it demanded.“No, you are going to be my meal for the day.”

The giraffe managed to kick the Brian off and escape with only a limp. Each day, Brian tried again and again, but always failed. If only he could get up to its neck. A week past and poor Brian could not get his meal.The next day Brian met a wise monkey who apparently had watched each of his battles with the giraffe. “My name is Maney and I think I can help you beat that giraffe. But it’s going to cost you!” he said. With a serious look on his face, Brian asked, “Cost me what?”

“If you promise not to eat me, I’ll help you get your meal.”Brian smiled smugly. “I can only guarantee you five months,’ he said.“Perfect, then let’s get started. You seem to be having trouble killing that long necked creature, right?”Brian nodded.“Well, I can make something to allow you to get right up next to its neck. I’m going to need some time, though, so come back tomorrow.”The next day, an excited Brian visited Maney. He saw that he had made four tall poles. “What the heck is this?” he asked, confused.“They’re called stilts. They’ll allow you to be as tall as the giraffe’ Maney replied. “Just step on the foot holders and voila! You have your meal!”

“Well, okay. If this works, the deal is on.”He stepped onto the platforms and was soon off on his way to lunch. When he found the giraffe, he was as tall as its neck alright. The only problem though, was that he overbalanced whenever he leaned towards its neck. Not willing to give up, he decided his only chance was to jump off the stills just as he approached the giraffe’s neck.Brian maneuvered himself close to the giraffe. He licked his lips, took a deep breath and . . . jumped!

The Dome of Astronomy seemed to be covered in dust as it had been deserted for years. When the reporter stepped into the room, the place crumbled. All that was left was a shameful telescope and the ghosts of failure!

An eye peered through the telescope, recording the stars. The scientist had been working for 61 years in the Dome of Astronomy and he had made no discoveries. The Dome was a waste of space in the big city, so it was being closed down. Stars glistened like silver diamonds, shattered into a million pieces in space. There was the glowing source of light, the sun, planets and of course the moon. The scientist searched the sky for the last time, taking notes and filing them in a cabinet. Before he pulled the cover over the telescope, the man peered at it for the very last time.

“Space is painted black with dots of buff, circles of dusty red, swirls of shades and the fiery orange sphere”. This time however, one more colour was added to his description, ‘emerald’!

The emerald star,

Shined so bright.

Life wasn’t a failure for him, yet.

The news struck. “A scientist discovers a green star!”

When the townspeople read the newspaper they threw it in the trash. “Rubbish, the old the old man is going mad!”

A young astronomer picked up the newspaper and read with curiosity. He went to his telescope and looked into the stars, no emerald star. He shook his head in dismay. “The old man has gone mad,” he exclaimed.

The ruins of the Dome of Astronomy were swept up by a cleaner. When the reporter walked out of the debris, he unleashed the ghosts of failure.

The eye looked into the telescope enchanted to non stop work on that lone emerald star. Suddenly, more appeared, not one but sixteen in a curved dotted line. Twenty four hours passed and another twenty four, little emerald stars dotted the sky. Another sixteen stars mirrored the other sixteen and eight made a small circle inside the elliptical oval shape. It was an eye! All of his astronomical beliefs came rushing back. The eye of space, wide seeking, he remembered from the astronomical guide.

Suddenly, two figures grabbed the scientist. “You’re too old and alone. We are taking you to your family. Say goodbye because you will never see this place again,” they said calmly.

The ghosts of failure rose to join the living that day as the man with a life changing case never closed it.

The world never changed, it could have, but life chose another door. The eye of the stars was still there but no human except the old scientist could accept it. They weren’t stars; they were the emeralds of belief!

Flip! So close! Just a few more times until I get it right! Showing my friends a backflip at school camp was so embarrassing when I landed flat on my face.

Flip! Finally! I landed on my feet! But why were my friends screaming? Had my pants fallen down? I looked down. A strange light was coming from … Then it hit me.

My pants were on fire!

One of my friends ran to the nearby lake with a bucket. He raced back with it full of water and he threw it at me. I was soaked, but the fire still shone. I was in a panic. Every fire alarm went off! All of the teachers rushed out, each with a fire extinguisher, and sprayed me. I was drenched. I nearly choked on the air from the carbon dioxide extinguishers.

I did more and more backflips to try to undo the process, but that only caused me to be totally enveloped by flames.

I ran like Usain Bolt and dived into the lake. Nearly half of the water in the lake evaporated, but I was still on fire! It was an inextinguishable fire.

For some reason, I didn’t see any burns on my skin. That calmed me down. Was I immune to heat and fire? I thought I was. Then one of my friends shouted, “Do a front flip!” I decided to try one. I landed on my back, but I kept trying.

Finally! I landed on my feet. I looked down. The fire was gone. Everyone around me cheered. I heard people say, “I’m telling everyone I know about this!” or, “The whole world is going to know about this!” I already felt famous, but I wanted to be humble.

I entered “Australia’s Got Talent”, and won! I had never felt so popular before. Scientists took me to their laboratory to perform research on me. They discovered radioactive material in all of my organs and muscles. They told me that I had accidently drunk some water with radioactive material mixed in it. (Don’t try that at home. I remembered being in pain for 10 hours last week and painkillers hadn’t worked!)

I discovered that I could do countless things with my fire skills and immunity to heat and fires. I helped the fire brigade rescue people from burning buildings, and fight bushfires. I also performed in circuses and talent shows worldwide. I had become world famous.

The FIFA World Cup is a soccer/football tournament held every four years. The World Cup was held in Brazil and 32 countries competed. The previous World Cup was held in South Africa and Spain beat Holland/Netherlands in the final.

Most people expected the semi-finalists to be Brazil, Germany, Spain and Holland and people thought that Italy would win Group D and guess what happened? Costa Rica won group D and Spain was eliminated in the first round! Costa Rica ended up making it into the quarter finals. Columbia ended up doing very well too. In the semi-finals, Brazil lost to Germany 7-1! In Group F, Iran held Argentina to 0-0 until the last minute then Argentina scored.

The teams that qualified for the quarter finals were Belgium, France, Costa Rica, Columbia, Brazil, Netherlands, Argentina and Germany. In the quarter finals, Argentina beat Belgium 1-0, Germany beat France 1-0, Netherlands beat Costa Rica in a penalty shoot out after a 0-0 draw and in the final game of the quarter finals, Brazil beat Columbia 2-1. Brazil, Germany, Argentina and Netherlands qualified for the semi-finals.

In the semi-finals (as you’ve already heard), Brazil lost to Germany 7-1. Many people say it was due to Brazil’s star player Neymar Jr and arguably their best defender, Thiago Silva not playing due to injury and suspension. This was probably the best game of the tournament. The third place playoff between Netherlands and Brazil was at 6 in the morning AEST and I was in Phillip Island at the time. Basically every Brazilian was in one of their worst moods ever and that was to get even worse! Netherlands ended up winning 3-0 so Brazil ended up 4th and Netherlands ended up 3rd. I don’t think anyone was surprised because all the Brazilian players’ self esteem was probably the lowest it’s ever been!

The final was definitely the most looked forward to game of the entire tournament. There were many chances but after 90 minutes it was still 0-0. With seven minutes of extra time left, Germany scored. Mario Goetze was the goal scorer and probably every German went crazy and every Argentinean started crying! Germany won the 2014 World Cup!! The Golden Boot (top scorer) went to Lionel Messi and the Golden Glove (best goalkeeper) went to Manual Nueur. I think Germany deserved to win. I was supporting Iran, England and Australia.

Australia’s performance was pretty good if you look at how they played but if you look at the scores, they did terribly. They lost 3-1 to Chile, they lost 3-2 to the Netherlands and they lost 3-0 to Spain. Tim Cahill also scored one of the best goals of the whole tournament. For a period of the Australia vs Netherlands game, Australia was winning 2-1 but then Netherlands scored 2 goals.

The next two World Cups will be in Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022. I think better planning is needed for the next World Cup. In 2022 I might travel to Qatar for the World Cup as a celebration for my good VCE (hopefully)!

This is sports reporter Deylan Razmara signing off and see me in four year’s time.

The Lighthouse was built by the Ptolemaic Kingdom between 280 and 247bc. It took 12 years to finish the lighthouse, it was between 120 and 137 meters tall. It was also called the Pharos of Alexandria and one of the seven ancient wonders. It was one of the tallest man made structures for many centuries. It was badly damaged in the earthquake of 956, and then again in 1303 and 1323. The two earthquakes in 1303 and 1323 damaged the lighthouse to the limit of collapsing, the Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta reported the lighthouse to be no longer enterable. It was built out of a light coloured stone and held together by molten lead. It was made out of three stages, a lower square section, a middle octagonal section and at the top a circular section. It then disappeared in 1480bc, this made it the third longest surviving of the seven ancient wonders.

In 796bc the lighthouse may have lost its upper tier. In 1480 the remaining blocks were used to build on the site of the lighthouse.

Construction

At the beginning of it all in 332bc Alexander the great founded the city Alexandria.
Alexander died of fever at the age of 32. The first Ptolemy announced himself king in 305bc, after the death of Alexander he started building the lighthouse of Alexandria. It took 12 years to finish the lighthouse and it finished in the reign of his son.

The Lighthouse Today
In 1994 French archaeologists discovered some remains of the lighthouse near Alexandria’s eastern harbour.

Post navigation

What is Edworks?

Edworks is a Melbourne-based tutoring organisation founded by psychologist and teacher, Greg Nicholson. With over 20 years' experience, Edworks assists students from Prep to Year 12 build their skills for improved classroom and examination performance.

Parents are invited to take advantage of this blog, which offers valuable insights into Greg’s expertise, sought by thousands dealing with daily parenting and school related issues. For more information on Edworks, visit www.edworksglobal.com.